PERSONNEL ADMINISTRATORS’ USE OF THE INTERVIEW PROCESS AS A PREDICTOR OF QUALITY PRINCIPAL CANDIDATES: A QUANTITATIVE SURVEY APPROACH

The hiring of qualified staff that believe in the vision and mission of the school in which they have applied can be seen as the most important and significant decision a school district can make. Poor hiring decisions can affect a school’s culture and climate for many years, as well as significantly impact the academic prowess of its students. Inadequate interview practices poorly vet job candidates resulting in a lack of performance in newly hired administrators, leaving schools vulnerable to mediocre teaching and low student achievement. The research looked to recognize the changing role of the school principal and to determine what leadership skills and abilities are important to a school when hiring a new principal. The Professional Standards for Educational Leadership were the principles used to measure leadership skills, while the research sought to determine if the PSEL had any influence on the selected candidate satisfaction. The survey instrument was a 28-question survey. Twenty-seven questions were multiple choice using a Likert scale, and one question was an optional, free response question. The sample population was personnel administrators from across New York State. The statistical analysis of the collected data was entered into SPSS for the purpose of conducting a multiple regression. In an effort to determine if there was a significant relationship between the importance of the PSEL to a district, and the deliberate assessment of a candidate’s capacity to meet the PSEL during the interview, on the district’s satisfaction with the candidate. Spearman Rho Correlations between the variables were conducted. Personnel administrators found the standards extremely or very important and moderately assessed the standards during the interview process, however, no relationship was evident to their satisfaction with the successful candidate. This suggests that the importance and use of the Professional Standards for Educational Leadership during the interview process does not predict a district’s ultimate satisfaction with their principal candidate of choice